give thanks

Find some good in every day.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
He’s been getting “lost” in the house the last week or so. It’s been rather difficult at times to try to help him make his way around and find where he needs to go. We had the case of the missing pants and belt — which he’d taken from another bedroom and moved to his own thinking they were his. Thanks to the baby cam, we were able to find them the following morning. We’re going to have to get a back-up belt just in case this happens again and I’m sure it will — as he’s popping in and out of there more frequently of late.

Lots of conversation yesterday about a sibling — his worries over her land and property which had been sold quite a number of years ago. He wanted to know about her children and where they were and what they were doing now, though he couldn’t recall all of their names without some help. I reached out to one of them and hope to hear back from her today to try to get an update on them all. We’ll see how that goes.

See the magic in everyday things

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Another 3 am wake up – he was lost again and was knocking on his door. Thankfully, after a little bit, he was able to recognize things in his room that made it “his.” He spent another couple of hours earlier in the day being worried about things on the “farm.” He shared several of the stories from the day before again and then needed to make a call to one of the boys. Once that was handled, he wasn’t so worried again.

He chose to binge watch a whole season of Finding Your Roots last evening. He really enjoyed it and wasn’t ready to call it a day until the credits of the last episode rolled through.

cha-cha

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Yesterday was story day. Lots of stories and lots of repeats. No new stories but you could see and feel them as he told them. He laughed, he cried – he added a few new bits here and there, but no big differences from previous shares. He was happy to share for several hours — and I’m pretty sure it made the “losses” a little easier to handle in the moment as he realized they were gone and he couldn’t just reach out to talk to them right then.

optimism

CAREGIVER NOTE:

I was awakened to seeing the mattress being lifted and watching him take the safety rails off the bed last night. He couldn’t tell me why he was taking them off — but while doing so, he did break the railing locks on one side. I’ve ordered a new set of rails and they’ll be here tomorrow. OI! We had to remake the bed 2 times since I would just get things put back together and he would take them off again without telling me why he was doing it. He’s resting again now, but I worry about his safety getting up and staying on the bed at night. Another phase to work through.

On the plus side, earlier in the day he’d been so proud of himself…. he’s discovered he’d put his shoe on the wrong foot and was able to correct that without getting too distressed over it — and even prouder that he didn’t need to ask for help! (sometimes, it is the little things that need to be remembered).

8.14.24

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Daytime hallucinations — they’re becoming a little more frequent of late. Yesterday, he wanted to catch up with his siblings again after spending time with them in the last day or so… He wanted to know why one of them would have moved to another city further away and while he was happy to see them, he had figured out in his own mind that they would have been over 110 if they’d really spent the afternoon together celebrating his 92 birthday. He was terribly confused but not angry about things — as he worked through the “visit.” I noticed that as he was contemplating this, there were smiles and even a chuckle or two. I’m really glad the time spent was good.